“I won’t be able to persuade you to let me chain you to the bed until you make full recovery, will I?” Hinata asked in a nonplussed conversational tone as she gently pressed her green-glowing hand on top of Ren’s chest where his biggest wound was located, but her voice betrayed that she had already given up on that endeavor even before uttering her question.

Ren, who laid on his bed all bandaged up, gave her a rueful smile. “Just get me up and running, Hina. I will throw a tantrum and get Sarutobi to give me another paid leave or something later, but first, I need to get properly back to the village in a believable manner and report that I have been attacked.”

It was a very similar situation to what happened to him after fighting Yagura, and Ren absolutely hated it. He would just love to say screw everything and stay here, in his house in the Capital where they relocated after Hinata arrived, until he fully recuperated under the tender and gentle watch and touch of his adorable fussy Hyuga nurse.

But he needed to give the story to the Hokage first and control the narrative somewhat. If he let somebody like, say, Danzo, make some sort of story first, then Ren would be forced into a reactionary position.

That wouldn’t be fun at all. Ninjas are liars. It is a major part of their trade. Ren had no doubt at all that Danzo or even many of the other high-ranked officials from Konoha who disliked him could spin the narrative in such a way that Ren would find himself in the position of a suspected traitor rather than a victim of a trap and an assassination attempt.

Looking at the cutely scrunched, and exasperated expression of the lovely girl who had put him back together in just a few hours, Ren couldn’t help but be proud of how skilled his student had become with her medical skills.

He was almost knocking on Death’s door, and yet, just a few hours later, he felt he could go another round with the Kumo jonin.

Yeah, that was probably some of the drugs she stuffed into him speaking… He was still injured, after all. But he did feel great! Uh, he would need to ask Hinata what the heck she fed him. Things were just a bit floaty, and was that a crumple-horned snorkack laughing at hi-?

Hinata’s chakra suddenly jolted Ren out of his reverie as it cleared the fog in his mind, making his cheek burn red from embarrassment. Hinata was working on clearing the remnants of drugs from his system right now, so he occasionally spaced out and didn’t think clearly.

She had to go hard with the dosage because he was quite far gone by the time she got to him.

Fortunately, people would be surprised just what kind of things a Hyuga heiress could access. Some of the medicine she used was probably heavily restricted. Ren had no idea where she had gotten it, and he kinda didn’t even want to ask.

That could make it his problem. No, thank you.

A small, amused smile appeared on Hinata’s face as she ducked her head, which made her fringe cover her eyes. “It will scar if I hurry it up. On both sides. The attack went straight through your chest.” She mumbled worriedly while gently tracing her finger under the wound as wisps of medical chakra soothingly seeped into Ren’s skin.

Inwardly, Ren winced. Yeah, he didn’t like that. Scars were not his thing. They were not a badge of honor but a reminder that he fucked up. But stifling a sigh, he chuckled instead and tried to reassure the girl.

“I heard chicks dig scars.” He quipped and raised his eyebrow while giving Hinata an expectant look.

Hinata snorted and pressed her finger more firmly into Ren’s chest, “Good then that I am not a chick.” She cheekily replied.

“I don’t know. You look like a chick to me. What else would you be?” Ren grinned at her and enjoyed how she bit her quivering lower lip, trying to look stern while suppressing her urge to grin back at him.

He knew her well and had no doubts that if he wasn’t her injured patient, he would have her straddling him already, and they would be making out by now.

Sweeping her fringe out of her eyes with her free hand, Hinata gave Ren a peeved look, but she let her lips curl into a small smirk.

“A lion, obviously.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone as she pawed her free hand at him. “Rawr.”

That made Ren laugh hard until he suddenly started coughing, and his chest flared with pain, prematurely ending his fun with a small groan.

Chuckling, Hinata stood up, pressing her palm into his chest as she leaned forward and delivered a quick kiss to Ren’s lips before pulling away and sitting back on the chair next to his bed.

“Don’t worry. As long as you get back home alive, I will get you back on your feet.” She fondly whispered, and slid her free hand into Ren’s grasp. “But don’t make a habit out of this, please. I don’t like seeing you like this. And I know that Ino hates it, too.”

They settled into a companionable silence, only the quiet hum of soothing medical chakra spreading through the room as Hinata continued her work.

“The mission was a trap.” Ren eventually said.

He knew Hinata was dying to know more about what caused his sorry state, but she still had her shy moments and probably didn’t know how to ask. So, Ren volunteered the situation willingly, rather than let her set wild Ino on him to find out.

“I see.” Hinata’s expression darkened as she frowned. “Kumo?” There was something unsettling in the way she said it, and Ren remembered she had her own history with that ninja village.

Sighing, Ren lightly shook his head. She wasn’t asking who was the tool. She already knew that. No, she was asking who the mastermind was.

“If only.” Ren looked her straight in the eyes. “Somebody from Konoha. Nobody else could set the situation up so perfectly.”

That made her expression go from dark to complicated really fast. But she didn’t look shocked. Just sorrowful. Both she and Ino have been sheltered in the village since their birth. They were never shown how cruel and insidious the world could be. Ren has been working to remedy their naivety during the past several months.

He mostly told them stories, cautionary tales, about all the ninjas Konoha or other villages had screwed up over the years. Pakura’s story was their favorite so far, and they found it very sad. But this was pretty much the first time they got a first hand experience with betrayal within the village.

Honestly, Ren would have preferred it happened differently, but it was what it was.

“I… see.” Hinata muttered and fell silent once more.

“…” Ren didn’t say anything else for the next few minutes, letting her think on her own. He wasn’t trying to portray Konoha as the bad guys and make Ino and Hinata hate the village or something similarly childish.

He just wanted his girls to be able to think for themselves without assuming that rainbows were shooting from the Will of Fire’s rear. The ninja academy was very good at making kids believe nonsense like that.

Realistically, neither of the two girls was ever going to turn on Konoha, and Ren was fully aware of it. This was the place where their families lived, worked, and bled for, for generations.

And Ren didn’t hate Konoha. He just disliked a few people leading it and thought they were in an acute need of fatal dismembering.

If only it were that easy…

He, more or less, just wanted to prevent a situation where the Konohan leadership would try to use Hinata and Ino against him. He wasn’t teaching them just so they could pull Itachi on him and try to kill him later down the line because that’s what the village wants, and the village is always right.

Nor was he interested in being put in Sarutobi’s place where his very own student he spent years of his life teaching was now trying to kill him.

Seeing the tension leaving Hinata’s shoulders, Ren realized she was done with her thinking. He was a bit curious about her conclusion, but rather than open such a heavy topic, he instead smirked at the Hyuga girl and decided to bring some levity into the situation.

“If you are a lion, then what is Ino?” He cheekily asked the girl, causing her eyes to mirthfully gleam.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep